Belly of the Beest

The chocolate Party was wildly successful! I will keep the writing brief and get straight to the photos and the recipes! The next theme is “green” and no food coloring is allowed! Enjoy the chocolate recipes! Oh, and these recipes are written in the voice of those who prepared them, so if you want one of the recipes to be more specific, leave a comment and it will be provided.

Whoopie Pies Gourmet | January 2003 (Beth and Nick made these)

For cakes

2 cups all-purpose flour

½  cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (generous)

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 large egg

For filling 1

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar

2 cups marshmallow cream such as Marshmallow Fluff

1 teaspoon vanilla

or

For Filling 2

7 Minute Frosting –Makes about 8 cups

1 ½ cups sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

6 large egg white

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Make cakes:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl until combined.

Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl.

Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and

fluffy, about 3 minutes in a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a handheld, then add egg, beating until combined

well.

Reduce speed to low and alternately mix in flour mixture and buttermilk in batches, beginning and ending with

flour, scraping down side of bowl occasionally, and mixing until smooth.

Spoon 1/4-cup mounds of batter about 2 inches apart onto 2 buttered large baking sheets.

Bake in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until tops are

puffed and cakes spring back when touched, 11 to 13 minutes. Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack to cool

completely.

Make filling:

Beat together butter, confectioners sugar, marshmallow, and vanilla in a bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Make Filling 2

In the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer set over a saucepan of simmering water, combine sugar, corn syrup, 1/4 cup water, and egg whites. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 2 minutes. Then attach bowl to a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat mixture on high speed until glossy and voluminous, about 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Use immediately.

Then pick two pieces that are about the same size, add a dollop of frosting to one piece and then press the second piece into the frosting. Enjoy!

Basil, Brie and Chocolate Crostini (Beth and Nick)

Ingredients: french bread

about 1/3- 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

your favorite type of Brie

fresh basil.

When you put it all together it is sort of guess work, but we found that if you make the chocolate layer too thick, you can’t taste the other stuff.

To put them all together: toast the little slices of bread, while warm, coat with a thin layer of the chocolate, followed by a thin-ish slice of brie, finally add a couple small pieces of fresh basil. The end.

FUDGE (made by Sam Hutson)

ingredients:
light cream, 1 + 2/3 cups
butter, 1 stick
Domino sugar, 1 assload
24 oz semisweet chocolate chips
12 oz 1/2 milk chocolate/ 1/2 peanut butter chips
fire

1. combine cream + sugar in heavy saucepan
2. add fire
3. stir constantly until boiling, continue stirring 5 min.
4. remove from heat, add butter + chocolate
5. agitate until fudge present
6. scoop vigorously into fudge receptacle
7. let cool to room temp, refrigerate
8. bring to party and offer to guests
9. take most of fudge home with you
10. enjoy!

Goat Cheese Enchiladas w/ Corn and Red Mole (made by Kathy and Martin)

1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tbsp corn or olive oil
1 white onion, finely diced
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 and 1/2 cups corn kernels
1 and 1/2 cups grated Jack or Muenster
2 cups soft goat cheese (or you can substitute other cheeses for this)
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
salt and white pepper (black will work too)
1 cup vegetable oil for frying
12 corn tortillas
Red Chile Mole (recipe below)
1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream, for topping

Cover the raisins w/ warm water and set aside (if you’re using dried peppers in the mole instead of chili powder, then you want to rehydrate those then, too). Brown the pine nuts in a medium dry skillet, then remove. Add the oil to the same skillet and cook the onion w/ the garlic over medium heat to soften, about 3 minutes, then add the corn and cook for 1 minute more. Drain the raisins and put them in a bowl w/ the pine nuts, onion-corn mixture, and 1 cup of the Jack, the goat cheese, and cilantro. Mix everything together well, and season w/ salt and a little white pepper.

Fry the tortillas, then fill them w/ the mixture and roll them up (seams all facing down) to put in the ungreased 9 x 13 pan to bake. Make the mole. WHen ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Sauce the ‘ladas and strew the remaining cheese over the top. Bake until heated through, abotu 20 minutes. Serve w/ the creme fraiche or sour cream over the tops.

Red Chile Mole

1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1 1/4 tsp EACH anise seeds, cumin, and dried Mexican oregano
2 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely diced
1 tsp minced garlic
1/3 cup ground mild red chile (we use dried chilies, either pasilla or ancho, enough to equal 1/3 cup–rehydrate when rehydrating the raisins above, but before you do that SEED them by taking out all the seeds)
1 ounce Mexican chocolate, such as Ibarra, coarsely chopped
Salt
1 tsp sherry vinegar

Toast the seeds and oregano in a dry skillet, then remove to a plate as soon as they smell fragrant. Grind in a mortar or spice grinder.

Heat the oil in a 2-quart saucepan and add the onion. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 4 minute, or until it’s brown on the edges, then add the garlic and the ground spices and cook for one minute more. Remove from the heat, let the pan cool for a minute, put it in the blender with the chiles and w/ 1 1/2 cups of water (we use vegetable stock here instead and it makes it more flavorful). Blend it all up. Add the chocolate and blend it in too. Return to the stove and bring to a boil, stirring slowly but constantly so that the chile doesn’t burn. It will thicken as it cooks, so plan to add nother 1/4 cup water (or stock) or more to thin it out a little. Simmer for 10 minutes, then stir in the vinegar to bring all the flavors together. Taste and add salt if needed.

Black-Sugar-Glazed Medjool Dates with Pecorino and Walnuts (from the New York Times, made by Kathy and Martin)

2 tablespoons black sugar (dark muscovado)

1 teaspoon molasses

1/4 teaspoon cocoa powder

1 teaspoon fennel seed, toasted until fragrant and lightly crushed Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Pinch of sea salt

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar

For the dates:

6 medjool dates, cut lengthwise in half and pitted

4 ounces aged pecorino, shaved with a vegetable peeler

1/4 cup walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

Walnut oil, for sprinkling

Lightly cracked black pepper.

1. Arrange an oven rack in the top third of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees. To prepare the glaze, combine 3 tablespoons water, the sugar, molasses, cocoa, fennel seed, two to three grinds of pepper and salt in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally. Add the vinegar and simmer until just thickened, about 5 minutes. Reserve until ready to use, or refrigerate for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.

2. Place the date halves, cut side up, on a small baking sheet or casserole dish. Lay 6 slices of pecorino on top of each. Sprinkle the walnuts, a few drops of walnut oil and a few cracks of pepper over each date. Bake until the cheese has just started to melt, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer the dates to a serving platter. Drizzle with the black-sugar glaze and serve immediately. Makes 12 date halves.

recipe for choco banana bread – (as sung by kz) She also wanted to add this: The trick with the choco banana bread is you have to be a little bananas in the brain-as to pull it off right. And it helps if you sing the below song as you mix it all togetha.

Chocolate Banana Bread (made by Chris  and Kristi) for a more precious recipe please click here and add about 1/2 c or more chocolate chips)

First you take the suga and you mix it with the flowa

Then you beat the eggs my frieeeeennnnd.

Then you mix the eggs and bananas and the batta

then you mix the choco chips my frieeennd.

put it all together and put in the oven

take it out and eat my frieeeeennnd.

(serve to friends)

Chilled Chocolate Grasshopper Recipe (Made by Chris and Kristi)

1 ounce peppermint Schnapps

1 pinch chocolate chips
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
2 drops green food coloring
2 scoops vanilla ice cream

optional milk for desired liquidity

chocolate popcorn (made by Carla)

I used fancy red kernel popcorn from the farmer’s market in Madison, because that’s what we had a lot of, and the red hulls looked nice with the dark colored chocolate, but use what ya got.  These popped up a little small, but that just makes it last longer, or harder to catch.
I didn’t measure… just used enough to cover the bottom of a big ole pasta pot (maybe a cup, cup and a half?), but recipe calls for 12 cups popped.  If you know the popped yield of your particular corn, feel free to measure (or pop small batches until you have enough) but I don’t think it matters too much unless the corn:chocolate ratio is really important to ya.  In which case I say, get a life! I used probably 3-4 oz. of unsalted butter to pop the corn, but feel free to use an air popper, corn oil, or whatever you like.  If you do use butter, be careful with the heat so it doesn’t scorch.  Make sure you add some salt to taste!

Meanwhile, combine in a small saucepan:
1/4 c. butter (4 oz)
1/4 c. corn syrup (I used light, but dark might be yummy too)
3 T. cocoa powder, heaping if you’re feeling flush (dutch process cocoa is nice- gives it a good color contrast between dark chocolate syrup and snowy corn fluff… but use what you’ve got. I used Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa, because that’s all Dominick’s had other than regular ole Hershey’s last time I was baking a cake, not because I particularly care for or endorse their products.  Droste makes a mean cocoa powder…)
3 T. whole milk
generous dash of salt- sea salt, kosher, whatever you like
any add-ins- Nuts, coconut, chile powder (ancho or chipotle would be really good here, but go easy!), cinnamon, etc.- add spices before mixing with the popcorn, or in the case of nuts or coconut, fold in with the corn)

Bring this to a simmer, stirring frequently, and pour it over the popped corn. I transferred the popcorn to a bowl for this, so that I could separate the unpopped kernels at the bottom of the pan from the good ones.  Throw away the old maids, add them to your compost pile or feed them to your chickens if you have any.  They also make good slingshot ammo, especially if you’re getting low on ball bearings. Waste not, want not! Toss to combine, and spread out on cookie sheets to cool.  I left it in the bowl, but it will stick together a bit, so you’ll have to break it up. It’s popcorn, not rocket science, you’ll figure it out.

Store in an airtight container for up to a week, or throw it all at your sister’s face.  Just don’t tell her I told you too.  It’ll be our little secret.

Here’s the throwing of the popcorn

Once again, nice work! Can’t wait until the next one!

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Would you like some porter? Yes, but only if I can drink out of a measuring cup.

Nick and I made our first home brew this winter! The recipe was a porter recipe, but the flavor is a little watery to be called that. But it is a good beer! We enjoyed making it even though there were moments of WTF you can’t be serious… All in all a good experience and certainly an economically sensible one. 4-5 gallons of beer for about $20.00 worth of ingredients! We have our lovely and generous friends, Steve and Carla, to thank for getting us started on this. They gave Nick everything we needed to get started as a birthday gift. Thanks guys!

Here’s the recipe, just in case. It’s from Home Beermaking: The Complete Beginner’s Guidebook

He says it is almost foolproof and I believe it since we got it right.

6 lbs dark Australian or English malt extract syrup

first flavoring: 1/2 oz. Perle (3.5 AAU’s)

Second flavoring: 3/4 oz Perle (5.25 AAU’s)

Aromatic: 1/4 oz. Fuggle (1 AAU)  best name ever! Fuggle.

1 tsp gypsum

1 tsp Irish moss (I kept calling it peat moss. So not right, but I couldn’t stop saying it.)

1 package dried ale yeast or liquid ale yeast starter

4 oz corn sugar for carbonation

finishing gravity at 1.012 or less.

We let it ferment for 9 days, then bottled it. I even learned how siphoning works! And then we waited for two weeks before opening the first bottle. The first one we opened was ridiculously carbonated and it made a mess and it shook up all the sediment in the bottom of the bottle, but we figured out how to avoid that. We chilled it so it didn’t fizz over and the unfiltered bits stayed at the bottom where they belong! Good luck on your own brew, or come over and have one of ours.

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Spicy Hot Chocolate with Homemade Marshmallows

I’m nearly convinced that Karen Solomon wrote Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It just for me. I already make my own jam, granola, pie filling, and pickles. But a whole book dedicated to DIY preserving? This is the book I had been looking for. That said, I have some minor complaints with the book and I’m not sure if it is me or the book that is getting things wrong. So far everything I’ve made from the book needs a slight to HUGE tweak. Her pasta dough recipe? Never again. Her graham crackers? Great taste, cooking time is way too long. Marshmallows? Perfect. Senior Mints? Addictive. Peanut (made cashew for Nick) Butter cups? We shall see, they are currently solidifying in my kitchen. I have already gifted this book to my friends Stuart and Michelle so I would be curious to know how their experience has been. But the book, like DIY projects in general, can be fun as well as infuriating, not to mention delicious.

Now on to the recipes. I have mentioned several foods that I will be posting about over the next few days, but I thought I would start with two rather simple ones. The first is hot chocolate, the second, marshmallows. This marshmallow recipe will likely be the only non-vegetarian recipe I ever post on this site. So be warned if you are a strict veg. You can go to Whole Foods and buy vegan marshmallows if you’d like.

Winter has arrived and it has many people around the country (18 inch of snow in Nebraska!) hunkered down under blankets and cursing the fact that they don’t live some place warmer. So as long as you are stuck inside, you may as well enjoy a sweet treat or two! There are two hot chocolate recipes, both are delicious, but this year I am partial to the spicy one.  These are large portions meant to serve lots of people. So here they are:

Traditional hot chocolate

Spicy hot chocolate

The spicy hot chocolate is not very sweet so if you prefer it sweet, add more sugar. Also, I want to warn all you spicy food lovers out there, DO NOT increase the cayenne pepper in the recipe. It will taste gross. If you like cayenne pepper more than you like the subtle interplay of spices, just save the time and eat the cayenne pepper straight from the spice jar.  I feel both these taste better when mixed with hot milk rather than water. Water makes it taste, well, too watery.

Homemade Marshmallows

Now on to the marshmallows: I am, as you all know, a vegetarian. I do however make exceptions for a few things…marshmallows are one of them. I know it can be considered gross or hypocritical, but I can’t hear what you are saying because I’m enveloped in a soft pillowy marshmallow cloud.

I would say, unless you have some sort of stand mixer; these are a pain in the neck. You have to let the mixer beat the sugar and gelatin together for about 13 minutes. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I could stand with a hand mixer for 13 minutes and wait. This is among the most temperamental of the recipes I have cooked lately. The recipe says to boil the sugar and syrup until the candy thermometer reads 240, I couldn’t get mine to go over 220 and then it started to burn. So at 220 I turned off the heat and quickly dumped it into the Kitchenaid. The tricky part was getting all of the marshmallow fluff from the mixing bowl into the pan. The long strands were a little annoying, but really, after getting most of it into the pan it was easy. Then you just have to wait for them to cool. In the book, Ms. Solomon suggests that this recipe makes 36 medium or 16 large marshmallows. I cut mine into 36 medium and they were stupid big. I like my marshmallows small and plentiful so for the Christmas gift baskets this year, I will be making much smaller ones. Now, without further flourish, the recipe.

Ingredients

Steps

1. Lightly oil the inside of an 8 by 8 inch pan with vegetable oil. Generously coat with confectioners’ sugar; set aside.
2. Pour 1/3 cup of the water into the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle the gelatin over the water, and let stand for about 10 minutes, or until the gelatin has softened.
3. In a saucepan, off heat, combine the remaining 1/3 cup water and the granulated sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Place the pan over medium high heat. NOTE: use a large pan for this because it will get quite bubbly.) Clip a candy thermometer to the inside of the pan and make sure it doesn’t touch the bottom. Cook the mixture without stirring until it reaches between 220-240.
4. With the mixer on low speed, very carefully add the hot syrup to the softened gelatin. Add the vanilla, increase the speed to medium-high, and beat for 8-13 minutes, until the mixture becomes very stiff, white, and sticky. I did this for 13 minutes.
5. Spread the mixture into the prepared pan using a lightly oiled spatula. With wet hands, press the batter evenly into the corners of the pan. Set aside for at least 1 hour, or until the mixture is firm and cool.
6. Sift the confectioners’ sugar into a shallow dish or bowl. Run a wet knife around the edge of the cooled pan to loosen the marshmallow sheet. Remove the marshmallows from the pan and cut into 16 to a million pieces, wetting the knife often to keep it from sticking. Toss each marshmallow in the confectioners’ sugar until completely coated.

HOW TO STORE IT: store marshmallows in a single layer or in layers separated by waxed paper. They will keep for at least 1 month when stored airtight and at moderate temperature.

VARIATIONS: substitute sifted unsweetened cocoa or toasted shredded coconut for the confectioners’ sugar used to coat the marshmallows, or fold nuts, mini chocolate chips or dried fruit into the stiff marshmallow mixture before spreading.

Enjoy! Tomorrow graham crackers!

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Tomato Custard Pie

Last Sunday we had our Tomato Dinner Party. I think it was the best food we have had for awhile, the photos aren’t the best because it was at night so they are a little darker than I would like. I’m afraid I’ll have to start bringing a flash with me to these parties since it is getting dark so much earlier already.

Anyway, here are the recipes and the photos from the night!

Harvest Moon

Kathy and Martin made a drink. Officially it’s an “Heirloom Tomato Mojitonico” which originated at Chicago’s own Nacional 27, which based on their website does not look like someplace Martin wants to start hanging out anytime soon.  (In any event, we  prefer Nick’s suggested appellation for the drink.)  We made it as follows:

Says the NYT: “Rim a 16-ounce glass by moistening the edge with a lime wedge, then dipping the glass into a small plate filled with equal parts salt and pepper. Into the same glass add the tomatoes, herbs and lime sections, then muddle, gently, until the mixture is equal parts juice and solids. Add ice, stir, then add the gin, and stir again. Top with the tonic water.”  So that’s just what we did.

This whole drink-making exercise was basically an excuse to make adorable garnishes.  We garnished each Moon with a spike of pickled asparagus and a toothpick-skewer featuring a green olive, a tiny pickled okra, and a home-grown currant tomato, and capped with a ground cherry.  Classy!

(This is lifted directly from an email from Martin)

The drinks were enjoyed while we all ate pita with roasted tomato butter, outlined on my previous blog entry, here. We also had classic bruschetta, and a Caprese salad, both contributions from the Weiher brothers.

For the main dish we had a simple pasta made with sauce that I had canned a couple weeks before. This was a very peppery sauce. The recipe for pasta sauce is fluid and done to taste, but the basics are this:

saute onion and garlic until the onion is soft, add some salt and some pepper and a few fresh herbs like basil, oregano, and rosemary. Then add any tomato you like (brandywine, roma, whatever) just make sure you peel and seed them. Cook all this on low heat until it cooks down to a consistency you like. Add more fresh herbs and seasonings as you go. We topped this simple dish with toasted pine nuts and shredded cheese.

For dessert with had”Wee Italian-Style Puddin’ Banditos” (from Kathy and Martin) and a Tomato Custard Pie (from me and Nick). First, the Banditos:

Banditos and Tomato Custard Pie

WEE ITALIAN-SYLE PUDDIN’ BANDITOS

5 ounces softened cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar

13 ounces mascarpone cheese
3 eggs
1 3/4 tablespoons lemon juice
Finely grated zest of 1 1/2 oranges
Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon

The original Oliveto recipe wanted us to make these in ramekins in a ban marie, but what, do we look like professional pastry chefs?  We are not professional pastry chefs.  But mostly we just don’t feel a need to own fifteen ramekins.

So.  Put like fifteen or so muffin/cupcake cups into muffin/cupcake molds.  Put a tiny cookie in the bottom of each.  (Finding an appropriately-sized cookie was a challenge.  Nilla wafers, Megan’s weapon of choice, are a little small; we wound up using some Kraš Albert biscuits to represent for Croatia; they were tasty, but slightly large, and therefore angled in the molds and gave the finished banditos a slight and not-unpleasing tilt evocative of a radio telescope.)

Then beat the cream cheese with a mixer till smooth. Add the sugar gradually; beat until blended. Add the mascarpone; beat till smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each, scraping the sides of the bowl. Add the lemon juice and the orange and lemon zests. Pour into the muffin/cupcake cups over the tiny cookies. Bake relentlessly at 325° until set, 30-40 minutes. Chill through and through.

TOMATO COMPOTE

5 1/2 cups tiny tomatoes (we used some low-acid Sungolds as well as a few of our own currant tomatoes and Sweet 100s)
3/4 cup sugar
1 lemon, peeled, sliced paper thin and chopped
1 cup sultana raisins
Additional lemon juice and sugar, to taste

Preheat the oven to 325°. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of tomatoes. Cut the remaining tomatoes in half lengthwise. Place them with their cut sides up on a wire rack over a sheet pan. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of the sugar. Bake for 15 minutes, then sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and continue baking until mostly dry, 1-1 1/2 hours.  (We discovered that the Sungolds took rather longer to dry out, and some of our tomatoes crisped pretty quickly.)  Place the reserved tomatoes in a blender, and blend into 1
cup of thin puree.

Bring 1 cup of water along with the remaining sugar (6 tablespoons) to a boil and add the lemon. Let simmer for 10 minutes, then add the roasted tomatoes and raisins. Cook until everything is bubbly, then add the puree and cook another few minutes, taking care not to scorch the bottom.  Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature. Add more sugar to taste, and, if needed, a squeeze of lemon. Spoon with extreme prejudice over each bandito.

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We had our cherry party a few weeks ago, but I’m just getting around to posting about the party now. We had a lot of adventures since the Cherry Party, thus, the delay. But now, without further delay, the photos and the recipes!

First, the drinks. Katie, Nick, Katie’s sister and her boyfriend, really out did themselves here. We had this party on a Sunday afternoon so we didn’t drink as much as we would have on say a Saturday, but one of these drinks was completely gone at the end of the party.

Sour Cherry Lemonade

Sour Cherry Lemonade
*Note from Katie: the lemon juice was not strained, giving the drink a pulpy orange juice consistency; straining the lemon juice would result in a lighter, fizzier drink.

2 lb fresh or thawed frozen sour cherries (1 qt), stemmed
1 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups vodka
2 to 3 cups chilled seltzer water

Blend cherries (including pits) in a blender at low speed until skins have broken down enough to brightly color liquid (some of pits will be coarsely chopped). Pour through a sieve into a 2-quart pitcher, pressing on and discarding solids. Add lemon juice and sugar (to taste), stirring until sugar is dissolved.

Top off with seltzer water.

The other drink was a massive punch bowl of Aviations.

1 part maraschino liqueur,
2 parts lemon juice,
3 parts gin

Note from Katie: In retrospect [the drink] was a bit overzealous for an afternoon gathering. Oh well. Hope you enjoyed your bowl of gin, Nick.

Black Cherry-Habanero Salsa

Aarti made a Black Cherry-Habanero Salsa that was absolutely perfect. It should also be noted that Aarti had to make quite an effort to find tortilla chips for the salsa because apparently, gas stations and convenient stores do not carry them. Weird, no?

Here’s the recipe:
24 fresh Bing cherries, pitted and chopped
1/2 to 1 fresh Habanero chili pepper seeds removed and minced
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice(about 1 large)
1/2 sweet red pepper, finely diced
12 tiny sweet tomatoes, halved and sliced
1/2 small Vidalia onion,chopped finely
1/2 cup loose pack Italian parsley leaves, minced
>1/2 cup loose pack fresh cilantro leaves, minced
1 clove fresh garlic, peeled and chopped
1/4 + teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper

The best way to make this salsa is to chop everything with a knife rather than in a food processor. Get all the ingredients prepped, then further smash the habanero and garlic with a mortar and pestle or the back of your chef’s knife. Combine all the ingredients, taste for salt and pepper and that’s it! Letting it macerate for an hour helps the flavors blend, and by the next day it will mellow in flavor, but also will be very balanced in sweetness, tartness and heat.

“Cherry Pork Wraps” = “Delicious”

Kathy and Martin made a delicious main dish. It was called “Cherry Pork Wraps.”

2 cups cooked brown rice (we used Lundberg Farms Jubilee blend)
1 pack seitan, cut into thin strips
2 Vidalia onions, chopped
1 Serrano pepper, thickly sliced
2 big cloves of red garlic, thinly sliced
a big pinch of dried basil
a fair amount of spicy smoked paprika
some garlic salt
some sea salt
some fresh-ground black pepper
3 cups pitted sour cherries from the now-defunct tree in our backyard
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger root
1 chopped Anaheim pepper
a bunch of shredded fresh basil
maybe 2 cups of shredded baby spinach
8 flour tortillas

We cooked the rice with some olive oil and a little veggie broth. While that transpired, we browned the seitan a little more oil, set it aside, and sautéed the onions till they were somewhat brown; then we added the garlic and Serrano pepper, then the salts and spices, and then we threw the seitan back in.

While all that was happening, we chopped 2 cups of the cherries in food processor. Once the flavors of the onion, seitan, et al. had, like, combined or whatever and the garlic had softened up, we threw the chopped and whole cherries in, along with most of their liquid. (The NW cherries wants you to not really cook the chopped cherries, but they’re using sweet cherries; our sour cherries were mostly juice, so we needed to cook some of that off.) Once the mix had thickened a little, we dumped in the cooked rice and the grated ginger and the Anaheim pepper cooked it awhile longer until the texture seemed pleasing.

Then we let everything sit overnight in some Tupperware. In the AM we warmed it up again and added the shredded basil. Immediately prior to serving, we wrapped the filling up in warmed and moistened (ick, nasty word) flour tortillas along with some of the shredded spinach. (The NW growers recommend shredded Romaine lettuce rather than spinach, which probably would’ve been better, but we had a bunch of spinach we needed to get rid of, so there you go.)

We had two awesome guests in from the Twin Cities for this party, thanks Sudha and Evan for coming! You guys made it even more fun.

I am simply including the link on these because the post is getting crazy long.

They made two salads:

Goat Cheese and Mesclun salad

and

Lentil and Rice Salad

Both salads were fantastic!

“Charlie’s Potato Trees”

Nick and I made these, though, they really didn’t turn out like trees. They would be super cute for Christmas.

2 1/2 lbs. potatoes
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter
2 Tbs. shredded onion
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 cup dried tart cherries, chopped
1/ 4 cup Parmesan cheese
Yellow pepper, few dried cherries

Grease a large rimmed baking sheet.
Have ready a large pastry bag or zip top food bag fitted with a large star-piping tip.

Cook potatoes in large pot in water until tender. Drain well. Return to a large bowl. Add sour cream, butter, onion, salt, seasoned salt, pepper. Beat until smooth.Add egg and beat until well blended.Stir in dried cherries. Spoon potatoes into bag with piping tip. Pipe about 16 mounds on the baking sheet, each about 2 1/2 inches wide at the base and 3 inches high. Sprinkle with the cheese. Heat oven to 450º. Bake 15 minutes or until potatoes just begin to brown.Remove trees with a wide spatula to serving platter.Cut stars out of yellow pepper and top each potato tree with a star and add a couple of dried cherries around the star and top of potato.

These would be really really cute for Christmas. Our potatoes didn’t turn out like trees because the potatoes were not stiff enough. I’ll probably reduce the sour cream next time. They were tasty though!

Cherry Date Chutney

Our other dish was an awesome (if I may be so bold) Cherry Date Chutney.

1 tbs. olive oil
1 shallot or three green onions and some garlic
1 c. dried cherries
1c dried dates
1 tbs. apple cider vinegar
2 c. cherry wine—I used cherry brandy here because I had bought brandy for the pie.

Sauté chopped shallot in olive oil in deep frying pan or saucepan until shallot is softened. Add one cup of dried cherries. Add one cup of dried dates (chopped in half or quarters) Add 1 Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Sauté for one minute. Add 2 cups of cherry wine and simmer until liquid is evaporated (usually 30 minutes). Once the liquid is evaporated, it is ready to serve or store in the refrigerator.

We served it on sliced bread with goat cheese baked at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. It was a great appetizer.

Now for desserts!

Martin and Kathy with the Boy Bait, looking sad because the cherry tree died.

Kathy and Martin made a variation on Blueberry Boy Bait that can be found here. Kathy and Martin changed a few things. Here are the changes they made:

“You just sub in cherries for blueberries and use a whole cup plus a few more, instead of a half cup, and add a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg to the batter.”

It is also worth noting that the cherries used in this recipe were from the now dead cherry tree in Kathy and Martin’s apartment courtyard. I guess it was sick…It is a big loss, but at least they still have the raspberries!

Cherry, Cherry, Cherry Pie

Nick and I also made a dessert since no cherry party would be complete without a pie. This was an intimidating process as I have never made a pie crust before, but I think it turned out well. Maybe a little bit dry, but still good. Here’s the pie recipe. It smelled pretty boozy! I will write about the piecrust soon as it was a big process and fairly involved.

Cherry, Cherry, Cherry Pie *A cherry pie recipe using dark sweet cherries, tart cherries, cherry concentrate and cherry brandy won Sandy Barnes of Eastport 1st place in the Friske Orchards 6th annual cherry recipe contest.* And made me very happy we had an occasion to make said pie.

Double crust pie crust
12 oz dark sweet pitted cherries
12 oz tart cherries
1/2 cup dried cherries
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice, fresh squeezed
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
Pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cherry concentrate
1 oz cherry flavored brandy
2-tablespoon butter, cubed

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Prepare piecrust and roll out bottom crust, fit into a large pie dish. Chill. Mix all other ingredients exceptButter and pour into chilled piecrust. Dot with butter. Roll out top crust, cover pie, crimp edges and cut vents or make a lattice crust.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees. Decrease temperature to 375 degrees and bake for an additional 45-50 minutes.

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These are the images from the Grape fest. I don’t have all the recipes, but here are most of them. Thanks for all the food! These were all taken with the new camera. I like some of them, but some have a strange tint in color. I’m working on that.

Kathy and Martin made Muscat and Grape Risotto…

MUSCAT & GRAPE RISOTTO WITH HERBS & SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS
This is pretty straightforward: there’s really only one way to make risotto, and the method is widely publicized. We sauteed the shiitake shrooms in butter w/ some rosemary and garlic and a little of the muscat, then set them aside. Then we sauteed four shallots and some crushed garlic in a bunch of butter and a little oil, added three cups of arborio rice, stirred it to coat it with oil and butter, and poured in a good supply — I dunno, maybe a cup — of muscat. When the liquid was all absorbed — which took like a second — we added broth, a ladleful at a time. (When you’re making risotto, you have a separate pot of broth simmering, and you gradually ladle in a little at a time, stirring often and adding more when each addition is absorbed. You pretty much never cover the pot, like you’d do when cooking other types of rice. Any other method of cooking risotto should be viewed with suspicion.) We did this for like an hour. When the rice was no longer chalky and gross, but soft and tasty, we added a bunch of black grapes that we’d sliced thinly, along with some fresh parsley, fresh marjoram, the shiitakes, more butter, a bunch of grated Parmesan cheese, and one last ladleful of broth. Then things were basically ready for prime time.

…and Stuffed Grape Leaves!

STUFFED GRAPE LEAVES

(This is basically a Love To Know recipe: http://recipes.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Vegetarian_Stuffed_Grape_Leaves

12 ounces preserved grape leaves
1 onion, chopped fine
1/2 bunch scallions, chopped fine
1/4 cup chopped parsley
10 mint sprigs chopped
Zest of one lemon
1/2 teaspoon crushed dried chilies
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds, crushed
1/4 cup chopped raisins
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
a few shakes of the fancy cinnamon Beth and Nick gave us
1 cup reasonably quick-cooking grains (we used jasmine rice and quinoa)
1/2 cup olive oil

Rinse the grape leaves in cold water to get the brine off. Place them in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow them to soak for ten minutes. Drain completely.

In a bowl, mix together the onion, scallions, parsley, lemon, chilies, fennel, raisins, pine nuts, cinnamon, rice, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add salt if needed.

Take a grape leaf and place it vein-side-up with the bottom of the leaf face towards you. If there is any stem on the leaf, trim it off. Place a heaping teaspoonful of the rice/herb mixture close to the bottom of the leaf. Fold the bottom of the leaf over the rice mixture. Fold the sides of the leaf over toward the center. Roll the leaf like a cigar. Do this like thirty-four more times.

Place several unstuffed, unrolled leaves on the bottom of a large saucepan. Place the stuffed leaves into the saucepan in a layer or two. Drizzle the oil over the stuffed grape leaves. Add boiling water to cover the leaves. (We used a little too much, maybe, and ours turned out a little soggy.) Cover the grape leaves with a plate to help keep them under the water. Place the cover on the pan and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour; most of the liquid will be absorbed.

Chill in the fridge; squeeze some lemon juice over the top; serve.

Nick made Winegrower’s Salad

Winegrower’s Salad (from Ikea’s 365 recipe book)
Serves 4
1. Wash 5 oz each of red and green seedless grapes and cut them in half
2. Wash and prepare 14 oz of green salad and spin dry. Cut 5 oz Cambozla into large cubes. Put 3 ttbsp white wine vinegar, 6 tbsp apple juice, a little salt and pepper, and 5 tbsp in a screw-top jar and shake well.
3. Garnish with croutons.

We made some cheese bowls too! But the recipe we were looking at said 3 tbsps of cheese would be enough for a good bowl, but I think they were trying to made cheese bowls for squirrels. We ran out of cheese so we only had three. They were very tasty, Nick and I ate the failed first attempt before coming to the party…
TO MAKE A CHEESE BOWL: Are you ready for this? Spread some cheese on a non-stick pan, cook for two-three minutes and then remove from heat and let stand for 30 seconds. Then flip the cheese over onto an inverted cup. Let it get a little hard and then you’re done. deliciously simple.

I made a supper tart of red onions, green and grapes

(Note: the puff pastry got really stuck on the pan, I don’t know if it is because it cooked to long or what, but just be careful of that.) This is a recipe from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper

Serves 3 or 4 or wish a salad more
10-15 minutes prep time 20 minutes stove time

Ingredients

1 light-packed cut of mixed salad greens (spring mix or baby romaine)
Generous 1/2 cup good-tasting seedless grapes
1 medium red onion, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick slivers
Shredded zest of 1/2large lemon
1 large garlic clove, fine chopped
Leaves from 5 fresh thyme springs
1 tablespoon good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil
Generous 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, defrosted (one 17.3-ounce package)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup shredded Asiago cheese

Directions

Set one oven rack as low as possible. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Tear greens into bite-sized pieces as you add them to a large bowl. Toss them with grapes, onion, lemon zest, garlic, thyme, olive oil, salt and pepper.

On a large ungreased cookie sheet, lay out pastry sheets side by side so they overlap by 1/4 inch. Press the overlapping edges together to seal. Create a rim by folding pastry edges up and over on themselves and pinching them together. You’ll end up with a rectangle that is about 7 1/2 by 17 inches.

Fill center of tart with vegetable-grape mixture, spreading it out so there is space between the pieces. Slip it into bottom rack of oven and bake 15 minutes. As tart bakes, blend cream and cheese in a small bowl.

Remove cookie sheet from oven. Spread cheese mixture over tart. Slip it back into oven and bake for another 6 minutes, or until cheese is melted and barely picking up color. Pull tart from oven. Let it stand for a few minutes, and then cut into 8 squares. Serve it right away or at room temperature.

Aarti finished off the evening with Pear crisp

Crisp:

• 7 3/4 cups cubed Bartlett or Anjou pears
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Cooking spray
• Topping:
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (about 2 1/4 ounces)
• 1 cup regular oats
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Dash of salt
• 1/4 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces

We also had punch, wine and tacos. Those recipes are on their way and I’ll add them to the post when I get them. Anu provided wine she had blended at Bin36 and it was very tasty! I had the wine and not the punch, so again, people who tried it should post!

Tiffany brought grape punch….

….and Rick brought tacos with a pico that had raisins.

I can’t be more descriptive because I didn’t try it since it was meat. Sorry! But people who ate it should post.

As promised, here are links to the dishes that Tiffany and Rick brought:

Picadillo

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/saras-secrets/picadillo-tacos-recipe/index.html

Punch

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sara-moulton/white-grape-tangerine-and-asti-spumante-punch-recipe/index.html

Tiffany had a note on the punch: On the punch, instead of Champaign I used sparkling apple cider and instead of Brandy, I used more grape juice.

Lemons are on the plate for May!

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We had our second “Dinner Class” on Sunday night and it was fantastic! Everyone brought amazing food, though, I think if I was giving prizes, the top prize would go to the quinces. For their taste, the time dedicated to making quince edible AND because it is the first time I have ever wanted to eat an entire bowl of whip cream. Well played, Martin. Everyone else, did well, I would make all the dishes again, but it’s hard to outdo a quince.

Anyway, here are photos from the night and some recipes and links.

Kathy and Martin also made Mango-Cilantro Margaritas

MANGO-CILANTRO MARGARITAS

(from Bon Appetit by way of Epicurious: )

• 2 small mangos, pitted, peeled, chopped
• 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 cups 100% blue agave silver tequila
• 3/4 cup fresh lime juice
• ¾ cup Simple Syrup
• 4 tablespoons orange liqueur (we used Grand Marnier)
• 2 quarts ice cubes, divided
• Fresh cilantro sprigs (for garnish)

Combine mango and cilantro leaves in large bowl. Press firmly on solids with muddler or back of wooden spoon until mashed. Mix in tequila, lime juice, Simple Syrup, and orange liqueur, then 1 quart ice. Stir to blend well. Strain into pitcher. Divide remaining ice into tall glasses. Pour Margarita mixture over. Garnish with cilantro sprigs.

Steve was kind enough to bring two different kinds of home-brew. One was coriander-orange and the other was Schwartz beer. Both delicious, the one in the picture is the coriander-orange.

>Nick made “Mexi-Quinoa Acorn Squash” Very pretty and colorful. Our house still smells a little like peppers, but in a good way. Here’s the recipe, we had lots of quinoa left over so go easy on that if you don’t want left overs, but the stuffing re-heats well.

Mexi-Quinoa Acorn Squash

serves four

2 medium-sized acorn squash
1 cup quinoa
water or broth
2 bay leaves
1 medium white or red onion
2 cloves garlic
1 red pepper, cleaned and chopped
2 jalapeño peppers, minced finely
1 tsp each cumin, chile powder, and coriander
salt and pepper to taste
1 can low-sodium black beans, rinsed
1 can yellow corn (not creamed)
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted in a 350 oven or toaster oven until shiny
fresh cilantro, chopped
cheese of your choice
green onions
sour cream and salsa

1. First, roast the squash. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut each squash in half longitudinally, as the picture shows. Scoop out the flesh and seeds. You can wash the seeds off and roast them with oil, spices, and salt for a delicious treat.
2. Brush the flesh of each squash with a little oil, and place them cavity side down on a non-stick pan or parchment paper. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until flesh seems to have softened. Remove the squash from oven, (turn it down to 350) and turn the squash flesh-side-up. Put a pat of butter in each cavity, sprinkle with brown sugar or drizzle with maple syrup. Return to the oven.
3. Meanwhile, cook the quinoa. Rinse 1 cup of quinoa a few times in cool water. Drain. Bring to boil with 1 3/4 cups water or broth and the bay leaves, reduce heat to low, and let simmer until all water has been absorbed. Let cool slightly and fluff with a fork. Remove the bay leaves.
4. Sauté the onion and garlic in oil until they’ve softened. Add the red and jalapeño peppers and spices, and keep cookin’ for a few more minutes.
5. Add the black beans, corn, and toasted pine nuts. Cook for another minute or two.
6. Remove from heat and stir in the fresh cilantro.
7. Add the quinoa to the sautéed bean mixture. Fill each acorn squash cavity with as much of the yummy stuffing as you want. Sprinkle the tops with grated cheese of your choice.
8. Garnish with chopped green onions, sour cream, and salsa if you wish.

And finally, if you are still reading, the quince!

Slow-Baked Quince
(adapted from Paula Wolfert’s recipe in The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen, as cited on the “In Praise of Sardines” blog)

Serves 8

4 medium quince
1 & 1/3 c superfine (baker’s) sugar
1 & 1/3 c water
3 cloves

1 t coriander seed
3 T lemon juice
1 apple

Preheat oven to 250?F (120?C).

Peel and halve the quince. Using a melon baller and a paring knife, carefully core the quince halves. They are incredibly hard, so be careful when using the knife to remove any stray bits of stem. Reserve all the peel and trimmings. Combine the sugar, water, cloves and lemon juice in a shallow baking dish, such as a casserole (preferably one with a lid). Stir with a whisk to dissolve the sugar. Add the reserved trimmings and the quince halves. Peel the apple. Coarsely grate the apple over the quince halves. This will prevent the quince from drying out while baking.

Cover and bake for 5 to 7 hours until the fruit softens and turns pink.

CORIANDER CREAM

(from KQED’s “Bay Area Bites” blog)

2 Tablespoons Coriander Seeds
2 C Heavy Cream
1/2 Cup Sugar, or to taste

1. Toast coriander seeds in a small, non-reactive saucepan over very low flame.
2. When toasted, add 1 1/4 cups cream and sugar.
3. When cream is hot to the touch, whisk briefly and shut off heat and steep for one hour.
4. After steeping, turn on heat and get hot again. Do not boil!
5. Starting at a low setting, puree mixture in a blender. At the fastest setting, blend for a full two minutes.
6. Strain through a fine meshed sieve into a bowl with the other 3/4 cup cold cream. Using a spoon, press out as much of the infused cream from the solids as possible.
7. Chill over an ice bath or in the fridge, uncovered until cold to the touch.
8. Whip cream until desired stiffness, or keep as a liquid to pour over, English-style, any dessert you wish to.
Once chilled, coriander cream will keep, refrigerated, in a tightly covered non-reactive container for 10 days or until the date on the cream carton.Martin and Kathy made the cream right before we ate the quince, so I don’t know about the storing of the stuff, I’m not sure why you would ever have to worry abouat that because you will eat all of it in one sitting.

If I didn’t post your recipe, feel free to post it in the comments area. Again, great job everyone! I love our cooking parties and I’m really excited to see what people pull off for the Grape Escape in April.

It’s at Aarti’s place but the date has yet to be decided.

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Granola with yogurt

First, my hard drive kicked it this weekend– RIP little guy, so I lost the prep photos for this granola, but I imagine I will be making it again soon so I’ll post them when I do. I’ll also post a yogurt recipe soon. The granola was made for a brunch we had with friends and in-laws this past weekend. We didn’t have a full-blown dinner party because my sister is out of town, so, just a little brunch. It was the perfect amount of food and the mimosas were delicious. Thanks for hosting, Aarti!

Granola

Granola

4 cups oats
1 cup of dried fruit (I used cranberries, figs, and pineapples)
½ cup candied ginger, finely minced (I got mine from this brilliant shop, The Spice House)
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp salt
¼-1 tsp cinnamon (also from the Spice House)
¼ c canola oil
¼ c honey
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the oats, dates, ginger, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. In another bowl, whisk together the oil, honey, sugar, and vanilla. Add to the dry mix and stir until well blended. On a greased baking sheet spread the granola mixture evenly. Bake for 25 minutes, stiring a few times to ensure even backing. Let cool in the pan and store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. But mine didn’t last that long, I kept sending my husband emails like, “Dammit, I ate all the granola! We have to make more for the brunch.” Its really good stuff.

A few notes though, if you use figs, add them in the last five minutes, or they will turn into shriveled little pebbles that taste about as good as a real pebble would. Second, use good cinnamon, I went to the spice house and it has made such a huge difference! There aren’t too many ingredients in this so the better they are individually, the better they will taste together.

Corncakes with Cilantro

Nick made Corncakes with Cilantro from the Country Wisdom and Know How book.
You can prepare this batter a couple days in advance of use since it only gets better.

2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
6 tbsp melted butter
1 c flour
½ c yellow cornmeal
2 tsp baking soda
1/ tsp salt
½ c. Chopped Cilantro
½ c minced scallions
salad oil for the griddle
Sour cream, yogurt, and salsa for serving.

1. Stir in the eggs, buttermilk, and melted butter together in a medium or large bowl or pitcher. Mix thoroughly.
2. Stir in the flour, cornmeal, baking soda, and salt together in a smaller bowl, then stir in the cilantro and scallions.
3. Now mix the dry ingredients into the wet ones, stirring just enough to moisten the dry ingredients. Don’t worry if there are some lumps.
4. When you’re ready to cook, heat a griddle until a little water sprinkled on it dances around. Oil the griddle lightly and pour on some batter. Cook until bubbles form on top of the pancakes and begin to dry out. Now turn the pancakes and cook for about a minute on the second side. Keep going until the batter is gone and use the yogurt and salsa to garnish.

Notes: Nick suggests adding more flour or cornmeal to the batter, it was a little thin at first.

Pears Poached in Red Wine

Martin made pears a la Mark Bittman

4 Bosc Pears, ripe but not mushy
1 ½ cups of water
1 ½ cups of red wine
¾ c sugar
1 lemon, sliced
1 cinnamon stick

1. Peel the pears; use a melon baler to remove the core from the blossom end, but leave the stem on.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring the water, wine, and sugar to a boil. Turn the heat to medium-low and add the lemon, cinnamon stick, and pears. Cover the pan and simmer until the pears are very tender, at least 20 minutes.
3. Remove the pears to a bowl and continue to cook the sauce, over medium-high heat, until it reduces by about half and becomes syrupy. Strain the syrup over the pears and refrigerate overnight.
4. Serve the chilled pears whole, with a little of the syrup poured over them.

This is copied exactly from the recipe book, but Martin did things a little differently. Here’s what he said he did:

“I used a lot more wine than he calls for in order to completely submerge the pears (I used a plate to hold them under while they soaked overnight) and then I reduced a smaller portion of the soaking liquid into a syrup the morning of the event. (Had to get up early to make sure it had time to cool down prior to the brunch . . .) The spices I used were a cinnamon stick, half a vanilla bean, some cardamom pods, and a few black peppercorns. Tasty!”

Salad with berries!

And Aarti brought things together with a nice salad with berries and walnuts (raw meats). Our next dinner party is March 8 and features coriander/cilantro. I can’t wait!

Also, three of these photos were taken with my new G10 camera. Great little camera for taking around to bars and the like.

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Provencal Orange and Honey Salad

Kathy and Martin led the way with a Provencal Orange and Honey Salad, Sam brought excellent feta covered in honey mixed with black pepper and served on nice bread and Aarti brought a bruschetta that was mixed with honey. All delicious and started the meal off nicely. The main course was “Holy goats honey potatoes!” and an orange pan-glazed tempeh (adapted from a recipe at 101cookbooks.com) We served it over stemmed broccoli which was amazing and less filling than if it had been served over a grain. We finished the meal with a Honey-Spice Cake with “not too sweet” butter cream frosting (recipe courtesy of one Mark Bittman).

The next dinner party will be March 8th and the ingredient is cilantro/coriander. If you are interested in attending, post a comment and I’ll give you other details!

Also, to Craig, sorry I didn’t go with your recipes, I didn’t have time to get to the story for the mushrooms. The week was crazy with photo assignments, so I went with what was in the house. But I am going to try your suggestions sometime in the next couple weeks because they sounded wonderful. Any ideas for the next ingredient?

Here are the recipes that we used for the meal.

Provencal Orange and Honey Salad
3 oranges
2 tablespoons honey*
1 lemon and juiced
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or to taste
Fresh basil or mint leaves, cut into (thin strips)**

* Use a light-tasting liquid honey, such as clover or orange blossom

** Vary the herb garnish according to how you plan to serve the salad. Basil is best when it is a first course or salad, while mint suits as a dessert.

Using a sharp knife, cut the top and bottom off the oranges to expose the flesh. Stand the orange upright, cut away the peel, following the contours of the orange and removing all white pith along with the peel. Trim off any bits of white left on the orange. When all the oranges are peeled, slice them crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Put the orange rounds and any collected juices in a shallow bowl or deep-dish pie plate.

Pour the honey over the sliced oranges and gently toss with a rubber spatula to coat. Set aside in a cool spot (or the refrigerator if you like) for 1 hour.

To serve: Grate a heaping teaspoon of lemon zest from the lemon and set aside. Squeeze the lemon. Drizzle with the olive oil. Scatter over the lemon zest and herbs, and serve.

For individually plated salads: Pour about 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice on each plate. Drizzle with the olive oil. Scatter over the lemon zest and herbs, and serve.

For a platter presentation: Pour 2 tablespoons of juice onto the platter. Spoon the orange slices and the accumulated orange juice onto the plates or platter. Drizzle with the olive oil. Scatter over the lemon zest and herbs, and serve.

Variation: Layer the orange slices with slices of ripe tomato and sprinkle the whole dish with sea salt.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Orange Pan-glazed Tempeh

Orange Pan-glazed Tempeh Recipe

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (3-4 large juicy oranges)
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
2 teaspoons tamari (or soy sauce)
1 1/2 tablespoons mirin
2 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
roughly 10 ounces of tempeh (or extra-firm tofu)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 lime
a handful of cilantro (coriander) leaves

Put the orange juice in a small bowl. Squeeze the grated ginger over the bow to extract the juices, then discard the pulp. Add the tamari, mirin, and maple syrup, ground coriander, and garlic. Mix together and set aside.

Cut the tempeh (or tofu) into thin-ish, bite-sized pieces, and if working with tofu, pat dry with a paper towel.

Put the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot but not smoking, add the tempeh and fry for 5 minutes, or until golden underneath. Turn and cook the other side for another 5 minutes, or until golden. Pour the orange juice mixture into the pan and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced to a lovely thick glaze. Turn the tempeh once more during this time and spoon the sauce over the tofu from time to time.

Serve the tofu drizzled with any remaining sauce and a squeeze of lime, with the coriander scattered on top. Heidi note: As I mention in the head notes, I served this over some leftover wheat berries heated with a few handfuls of chopped kale.

Serves 4.

Holy goats honey potatoes!

Holy goats honey potatoes!
20 small potatoes
4 tbsp vegetable oil
coarse salt
goat cheese (to taste, and to fill said potatoes)
honey (generous—I used buckwheat honey)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Wash and dry potatoes, pour oil into a bowl, then add the potatoes to the bowl and coat well with oil.
2. Dip potatoes in coarse salt to coat lightly. Spread potatoes on a baking sheet and back for 40-50 minutes, until tender
3. Cut a cross in each potato. Press gently to open the little potato!
4. Top each potato with a dollop of goat che
ese (it will melt down.) Drizzle honey over the potatoes.

Honey Spice Cake (before the frosting)

Honey Spice Cake
Makes: 1 loaf (8 or more servings) Time: about 1 hour, plus time to cool

2 tbsp butter, plus butter for the pan
1 tbsp grated or finely minced orange zest
1 ½ c all-purpose flour
½ c rye or whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground cinnamon
pinch each salt, ground allspice, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger
2 eggs
½ c sugar
½ c honey
½ c freshly brewed coffee
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan (if you double the recipe, you can use a tube pan.) Combine the 2 tablespoons butter and the zest in a small saucepan over medium heat; cook until the butter sizzles, then turn off the heat. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Beat the eggs and sugar together until the mixture is light and thick; beat in the honey and the coffee, followed by the butter/zest mixture. Add the dry ingredients by hand, stirring just to combine; do not beat. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let the cake rest in the pan for 5 minutes before inverting it onto a rack. Remove the pan, then turn the cake right side up. Let cool before slicing.

Not-too-sweet Buttercream frosting
Makes: Enough for any cake Time: 10 minutes

12 tbsp butter, softened
1 ½ C confectioners’ sugar
½ C honey
pinch salt
2 tbsp milk, add more if needed

1 Cream the butter. Gradually work in the sugar, honey and salt, alternating with the milk and beating well after each addition.

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My friend Aarti and I have been craving mulled wine for most of the winter and we finally did something about it this past Saturday. It was the perfect day for mulled wine because I had been outside photographing the highest ski jump in the United States. It is in Fox River Grove, Illinois…I bet you didn’t know that! Neither did I until I got the assignment, but the people are great and the jump is amazing. Check it out here.

Back to the wine, I like this recipe because it is simple and doesn’t require brandy, which I can’t bring myself to drink except when mixed and hidden in other booze. So here is the recipe:

½ C orange Juice
¼ c water
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 orange
10 whole cloves
1 bottle red wine

Directions

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, sugar, and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer.
2. Cut the orange in half, and squeeze the juice into the simmering water. Push the cloves into the outside of the orange peel, and place peel in the simmering water. Continue simmering for 30 minutes, until thick and syrupy.
3. Pour in the wine, and heat until steaming but not simmering. Remove the clove-studded orange halves. Serve hot in mugs or glasses that have been preheated in warm water (cold glasses will break.)

We modified things a bit because we didn’t have the whole spice arsenal. We used an empty teabag with ground spices and it was quite good.

We ate lots of cheese and bread too. It was a really relaxing evening.

This is Aarti lighting the ‘duralog’ on the stove.

Aarti had a higher tolerance for the smoke than I did.

We also decided it would be nice to drink this mulled wine by the fire, normally not a bad idea, but the flue on Aarti’s chimney is broken. It neither closes nor opens, so, the smoke went into the house, instead of going up and out! It was kind of hilarious and we eventually had to douse the fire with water, but it was too late. I came home smelling like prosciutto.

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